


two player game

by aloneintherain



Category: Ready Player One (2018)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, References to Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 15:15:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14358141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aloneintherain/pseuds/aloneintherain
Summary: Helen laughed, running a hand through her braids. “Best friends, right?”“Yeah,” Wade said. “Best friends.”





	two player game

**Author's Note:**

> I sat down to write about the characters coping with their fame or newly acquired social status, and instead, this happened.
> 
> This was written in like. An hour. I almost didn’t upload this, but I knew if I didn’t unload these characters onto the page, they’d be haunting me for a while, the way characters often do, and I have shit to do. Also: I doubt there’s many fics for this fandom, so. I'm contributing.
> 
> I haven’t read the book, so apologies for anything I got wrong.
> 
> Warnings for implied past child abuse and threats of homelessness.

One of the bedroom’s at the end of the hall opened. Wade froze like a prey animal catching sight of a predator, and din’t move again until the overheard head light clicked on, illuminating Wade and his handful of cold cuts. For a moment, he was back in that cramped trailer, quietly coming in late after losing track of time in Oasis, sifting through the near-empty fridge while trying not to wake up his aunt or, more importantly, her boyfriend. The boyfriend with a mean right hook who hated when Wade woke him up, or came home late, or ransacked the fridge. Who hated Wade, full stop.

“Z?” 

Wade sucked in a deep breath and accidentally inhaled his mouthful of ham. He fell to the ground, spluttering. Someone followed him down, and then there was a hand on his shoulder, turning Wade towards them. He jerked into the shelf full of sugary drinks behind him. A bottle of sprite fell onto the kitchen floor and exploded in a spray of bubbles.

Wade looked up, and there was Helen, shuffling backwards on her hands and knees, staying crouched on his level, careful not to loom over him. Just Helen. 

He swallowed thickly. “Aech?”

“Hey, Z.” Helen settled onto the floor, sitting cross-legged, still out of reach of Wade. “How’re you doing?”

Wade shrugged and gestured at the loose ham in his fist, turned mushy in his warm grip. “Midnight snack.”

“Right,” Helen said.

The apartment was quiet around them. It was strange after living in the trailer suburbs with the constant background noise of his neighbours. It was like being in Oasis, his headphones blocking out all ugly sounds, a shining, welcoming world around him, and Aech by his side.

Helen watched him. Wade recognised that silence from the years before they met in the real world. It was the same tentative silence that settled between them in her garage right before she brought up something neither of them wanted to talk about—real life problems. 

He spoke before she could, “I’m fine. Really.” 

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” she said. Her tone was teasing, but the way she sat there, across from him on the kitchen floor, not moving until he did—that part wasn’t teasing. “You’re still adjusting to living with other people?”

“Yeah,” Wade said. Helen didn’t stand up and go back into her area of the apartment. She kept staring. So Wade kept talking. “I lived with people before this. There weren’t very—I mean, I miss my aunt, but also, it wasn’t always good there, and this is—”

“This is better,” Helen finished. 

“Better than I could’ve imagined.”

Helen nodded, and finally stood back up. She held out a hand to him, and he let her pull him to his feet. He stuffed the rest of the ham in his mouth, and closed to the fridge door. 

“It’ll take a while,” Helen said. “It’s taking us all a while. But we’ll get there.”

“Thanks, Helen.” 

Wade fetched a towel to mop up the spilt lemonade. Helen slugged him on the shoulder, and turned to leave, but she paused, hovering in the threshold of the kitchen. 

“Hey, Wade?”

“Yeah?”

“You know you could’ve contacted me, right? In the real world?” 

It was weird, Wade thought suddenly, being the same height as her. Aech would always look down at him from her impressive height when they had these talks, radiating disapproval and worry with every line of her bulky body. Being the same height was disorientating. 

“What?” Wade said. 

“I had that van,” Helen said. “I could’ve come to you, just driven right up to your address. You could’ve taken the passenger seat. It was cramped and kind of musty, but—it could’ve been yours. If you needed it. I know what it’s like to suddenly not have somewhere to go.” 

With how rich they all were now, Wade would never feel that old rush of terror at the thought of being kicked out of his aunt’s place. He had been skilled enough in Oasis that he could’ve kicked up some real world cash if he had to, work something out, but he hadn’t known anything about how to find somewhere tenable, about how to pay bills, or how to protect himself from real threats when he didn’t have access to in-game weapons and fight combos. 

Even with their newly purchased apartment complex, their proper beds with mattresses that didn’t have broken springs, their kitchen stocked to the brim with food, the thought of living in Helen’s decades-old van was still a relief. It assuaged on old hurt Wade hadn’t realised was still inside him.

“Thanks,” Wade said, clutching at the soaked towel. 

Helen laughed, running a hand through her braids. “Best friends, right?”

“Yeah,” Wade said. “Best friends.”


End file.
